Hmmm... I'm sure you all know by now that RE devs can draw whatever they want on one of the widgets called custom display, don't ya?
There's already
some shy/simplistic examples of that in the Shop.
Now, if a RE dev decides to use a custom display with a less simplistic background (because it doesn't need to be all black or all one plain color) with all the usual static graphics we're used to see on "regular" front panels and use custom display draw primitives to draw the animated/moving parts (faders, knob value markers, etc) like Kong little "display" or Synchronous has, then there's nothing in their way to also draw some wires over that.
...what I'm saying is that (internal) "cables" on the front has always been in the hands of RE Devs since the introduction of this powerful "custom display" GUI widget.
The caveat? No inter-device connections at the front, obviously, because this would be a device thing, drawing "fake" wires on Its own draw area.
One nice side-effect: "self-cabling" would be kept on patches, unlike any self-cabling done at the back unless put inside a Combinator.
So, ever since we started to see those fancy and useful "displays" on REs (Synchronous, Europa, etc) this "cables at the front" thing is just a matter of time and RE devs deciding to do it.
Korg MS-20, u-he ACE or Bazille or any of these self-contained "devices" can be done for some time in Reason's rack... As long as they can fit everything within a 9U unit.... Which is also possible in a while since interchangeable panels where made possible in REs (Thor-style)... Which there's plenty of recent examples too in the store.
Full "Reason-style" inter-device "real" CV/Audio cables at the front, like we have on the back?
hmmm... not sure I would ever want that, TBH.
